Emmy’s Prayer For Sight : Emmalyn Kae Latchford : Raising Funds for Emmy's Stem Cell Treatment

            Finally, I'm able to wright this "Blog"! It's been 20 long months since we got the news of Emmy's diagnosis and 18 months since we started "emmysprayerforsight". We are happy and blessed to say "we made it"! We finally raised all the funds to take Emmy to China! Our goal was to raise $35,000.00 by the summer of 2011 and we succeeded, thanks to all of you who help donate to Emmys cause. Thanks to all our friends and family that still continue to help and support us through this trial.

           Special thanks to our friends Blake Castetter and Connie Watkins for all their hard work in putting together the "Toss for "Emmy" cornhole tournaments and "Did for Emmy" volleyball tournament, thanks a-bunch guys we love you! Special thanks to Mike Cassinari for his "Tri-State Concert Series" musical fundraisers, thanks Mike your awesome! Special thanks to Chris Coplin for his musical talents, thank you! Special thanks to Berri and Louanne Cruz owners of "Cherry Blossom Design", for their Easter Picture fundraiser, thanks so much for your time. A very special thanks to Brian Biddle and Lexblog for creating "emmysprayerforsight" blog, thank you and last but not least our Church family at Bethel Baptist Temple for all their unconditional love and support for Emmy, also for letting us use the church for "Eat for Emmy", baking was never more fun! Thanks again Bethel for all your support and care for Emmy, we love you!

           Now we set off to China to get Emmalyn 7 stemcell treatments that will help her gain sight! What a blessing! We have all the faith in God that he will do his works in her and that no matter what the outcome, we know the Lord will provide! Thanks again everyone, we love you all!

                                     ***China here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

           

 

 

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               Friends, please pray for our little Emmy as she will be getting corrective eye surgery tomorrow @9am. She will be under anesthesia for roughly 90minutes! The surgery is being done on her left eye to straighten not only her eye but the turning of her head when she focuses. Thanks everyone for your continued support and prayer for Emmy.

              We still have around $6500 to raise to meet our goal for China and we have until the middle of May to get the rest. If you have anyone that you know that doesn't know about Emmy's Story please if you could please take the time to share it with them, It could be that one person that would get her the rest of the way to China. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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          When I was a little girl I loved to dance! Ballet was my favorite, I was the little girl that always was dressed up in the ballet outfit dancing around the room. I started taking lessons when I was about 4 and ended at age 16. I was what they called a “Pre-Professional”  I guess it’s because a was not old enough to be a regular Professional?!

The day we found out we were having a girl I remember thinking “I cant wait to teach her ballet and for her to be my little ballerina” I was so excited! This was one of many things that I had looked forward to years ago about having a baby girl! In another 4 or 5 months I would see my baby girl and then just a short while after that start teaching her to dance! I could not wait. This could be something we shared together, just like my Mother and I had when I was little. But little did I know that would be least of my worries.

Another moment I will never forget was the moment the Ophthalmologist looked at me and said “She was blind” everything went blank. I wanted so much for my precious little girl. Now she might not even be able to see my face, let alone be a ballerina! I was heartbroken. Everything went through my head! “How it’s  not fair, I Never smoked, drank, took all my vitamins, I did everything right!! How could this be happening to her! To us!  I felt as if my dreams for her were shattered in the matter of a moment.

She is 10 months old now and the light of my life! I thank God everyday for her! She is the most amazing blessing I have ever receive. Someone told me once that “God does not give us Children like ours to punish us but, because he trust us with them and it takes someone special to raise them”. I will never forget that!  I think about that statement often, to me it means so much but the main thing is that I will do everything in my power to giver her all the things she needs while we are here on earth! No matter what she will always be my little ballerina!
 

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Emmalyn had her 2nd Opthamologist appointment on Tuesday the 9th of February. The appointmant was to examine and re-evaluate the condition of her Optic Nerve.
 

This new Ophthalmologist was very nice and sincere through out the whole appointment. She made us very feel very comfortable and at peace. She thought that little Emmy was so adorable and funny because she would not stop “talking” and was making silly sounds; Emmy was in a great mood!

 

The Opthamologist started Emmy's evaluation and was very pleased and excited on how well Emmy’s eyes are performing. She turned off the light in the exam room and used a small pen light to see how well Emmy would follow it. We were all very excited! She started following the little light and she thought it was funny :] The Opthamologist continued her evaluation and Emmy did a great job! She had her tough times, but the Opthamologist thought “for the sight that Emmy has she did great”. Then it came time for the exam part of the appointment and we started to get a little nervous.

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Emmalyn had her 6 month well baby check up on Tuesday, Jan. 19th. She is 17lbs 3oz. in the 75th percentile for her height and weight she is doing very well. 

Growth and hormone issues are something that is often associated with ONH,  So the fact that she is growing so well is a great sign and a very big blessing. We also scheduled her MRI, this will confirm whether she has just ONH or ONH and SOD (Septo optic dysplasia). Because she is only 6 months old and does not know how to "be still" they will have to sedate her, as a Mother I am very nervous about that part but I know she is in the Lords hands!

On the bright side her Pediatrician is very happy about how well she is progressing.  She is also very excited for us to take Emmy to China and see how well the stem cells work for her!

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That is what brings us to now, and our special prayer for Emmy. She is now 6 months old, and we have people everywhere praying for Emmy to be healed of her ONH.

We believe our prayer is being answered, and we now have hope for Emmy. God has blessed us with new information from Emmy’s therapist that she is able to see something, even if it’s dark images, she is believed to be in the better 50% of the babies with ONH!

We are seeing miracles take place before our very eyes!! And now, we believe we are being lead to a procedure that is having amazing results in helping ONH babies improve, many to the point of sight!!!

Researched and offered by Beike Biotechnology in China for about 4 years now, the surgery involves stem cell transplants. Being pro-life people, our first question was “Where are the stem cells taken from?” They are not from aborted babies, but from the umbilical cords of live, healthy births taken exclusively from an umbilical cord bank.

As can be read in Louisa Lim's NPR article, Stem-Cell Therapy in China Draws Foreign Patients:

So far, 10 patients suffering from ONH have received the same stem-cell treatment in China, and doctors there claim that the vision of all 10 improved after the therapy.

We have even communicated with others that have already had this procedure done with miraculous results! One of our new friends took her 9 month old son who could only see bright lights and now can spot his little blue train from across the room!! They give all the glory to the Lord!!

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But Emmy’s pain didn’t stop there. We started to notice that something seemed “different” when we would look into her beautiful dark blue eyes. She wouldn’t look back at us, and her eyes would wander or bounce, but we kept hoping for the best for our beautiful little blessing.

At Emmy's 3 month pediatric check-up that her doctor made a comment about her eyes and recommended she see a pediatric ophthalmologist.

It was at that appointment that we heard the most devastating words we have ever heard, “Your baby has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH), we can’t be sure what she sees or if she  can see anything at all, and there is no treatment”.

The doctor’s file went on to state:

10 week old showing no visual attention; severe, bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia--very likely to have lifelong, severe visual handicap

How do you respond as parents when you get news like that? We were numb. We did  the only thing we knew to do…. we cried together, and then we prayed together.

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